7 Eerie Abandoned Skyscrapers Around the World

1. Sterick Building (Memphis, Tennessee)

Standing at 365 feet tall, the Sterick building was once the tallest in the South.

Completed in 1930, the tower was designed in a gothic revival style by Wyatt C. Hedrick.

In the 1970s, the owners were cash-strapped and a series of maintenance problems—from faulty elevator cables to failed water pumps—prompted commercial tenants to move out.

The building was bought and sold a number of times, but no one appeared willing to invest the time or money required to revive the structure.

2 Burj el Murr (Beirut, Lebanon)

(Photo: Eric Lafforgue/Art in All of Us/Corbis/Getty Images)

Locally, Burj el Murr is referred to as the tower of bitterness.

The unfinished skyscraper stand as a reminder of the Lebanese Civil War, which began in 1975 and effectively halted the structure’s construction. During the conflict, snippers would use the building as a firing post, leading it to serve as a visual divide between East and West Beirut. Today, it is still vacant and incomplete.

3 Goldin Finance 117 (Tianjin, China)

(Photo: Stringer/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Golding Finance 117 topped out in 2015 at 1,959 feet and would have been the fifth tallest building in the world. However, its developer ran into financial troubles, and the building was never completed and remains unoccupied. (Photo: Stringer/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

4 Sathorn Unique Tower (Bangkok, Thailand)

(Photo: Stephen J. Boitano/LightRocket/Getty Images)

Now a popular destination for urban explorers, Sathorn Unique Tower is perhaps the most famous abandoned skyscraper in Bangkok.

Designed in 1990, the Asian financial crisis in 1997 halted construction. Further, Rangsan Torsuwan, the building’s architect, was arrested in 1993 and acquitted in 2010 for his alleged involvement with an assassination plot, which made it difficult to find investors to finish the building even after the economy stabilized.

5 Ryugyong Hotel (Pyongyang, North Korea)

(Photo: Christian Petersen-Clausen/Getty Images)

Colloquially called the Hotel of Doom, Ryugyong Hotel looms over Pyongyang in North Korea.

According to CNN, the 105-story, 1,080-foot pyramid tower was born from the Cold War in an attempt to demonstrate the country’s strength as a response to a number of South Korean accomplishments at the time. Though it reached its planned height in 1992, the hotel has never opened. Today, the exterior appears complete, but the interior is reportedly far from usable.

6 Turkish Restaurant Hotel (Baghdad, Iraq)

(Photo: Ahmad Al-Rubaye/Getty Images)

Known locally at the Turkish Restaurant because of an eatery that used to be located within, this hotel was bombed during the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. It was unoccupied for years.

7 Oceanwide Plaza (Los Angeles, California)

(Photo: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu/Getty Images)

Three abandoned skyscrapers in Downtown Los Angeles have become unlikely tourist attractions, NBC News reported in February 2024. The buildings’ developer started construction in 2015, but pulled out in 2019 following financial difficulty.

Ref: 7 Eerie Abandoned Skyscrapers Around the World (Yahoo)

Photo Credit- Eric Lafforgue, Stringer, Stephen J.Boitano,Tayfun Coskun, Ahmad Al-Rubaye, Christian Petersen-Clausen